Colombia political scandal imperiling US ties

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia political scandal imperiling US ties
Congressional support for ally eroding
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff | February 25, 2007

BOGOTÁ -- Just two weeks ahead of a high-profile visit by President Bush to Latin America, the United States' key partner on the continent is engulfed in an extraordinary scandal that threatens to undermine the credibility of US alliances and policy priorities from Mexico to Argentina.

The widening probe linking dozens of political allies of Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, to the country's right-wing death squads and drug traffickers has started to erode support on Capitol Hill for Colombia, the biggest recipient of US aid outside the Middle East and Afghanistan.
(snip)

"Who have we staked all of our political capital on in Latin America? Uribe," said Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, a think tank in Washington. "If this scandal engulfs him or his armed forces, it will be a devastating blow to the whole design of US policy."

The "para-political" scandal burst open last fall, when a computer seized from paramilitary leader "Jorge 40" revealed the names of dozens of politicians who supposedly collaborated with paramilitaries in intimidating voters, seizing land, and kidnapping or killing labor unionists and political rivals. Other revelations followed, including secret documents signed by officials pledging moral support or kickbacks to the illegal militias.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/02/25/colombia_political_scandal_imperiling_us_ties/



Pickup to nowhere: Uribe and Bush

[Judi Lynn]

1. Love this quote from Human Rights Watch:

Maria McFarland, a Colombia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Bush has "stood by Uribe unconditionally," despite long standing allegations of his armed forces collaborating with death squads. With proof now emerging, McFarland said, US policy appears hypocritical.

"They are prepared to criticize very harshly leaders they disagree with, but when their allies do something, they turn a blind eye," she said. If the United States continues "to support so strongly a government mired in corruption and links to terrorists and drug lords," it will fuel resentment from other Latin American countries that have been ignored, she said.
(snip)

[Judi Lynn]

2. Ex-Colombia spy chief arrested

Last Updated: 23/02/2007 10:06
Ex-Colombia spy chief arrested

A former director of Colombia's secret police was arrested last night and charged in connection with the murders of union leaders and academics while collaborating with far-right militias.

Jorge Noguera, former head of the Department of Administrative Security, who served under President Alvaro Uribe, is accused of handing over a hit list of human rights workers and trade union activists to the far-right paramilitaries.

At the time, he was in charge of domestic security. A number of the people on the list later were killed.

The arrest deepens a scandal that forced the resignation of Mr Uribe's foreign minister earlier this week and has badly shaken the president's political camp.
(snip)

He is being investigated in the killing of university professor Alfredo Correa de Andreis, one of the names on the hit list. Correa was investigating the forced displacement of peasants from rich lands along the Caribbean coast that were then taken by the paramilitaries..
(snip/...)

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0223/breaking30.htm



Jorge Noguera

[Robbien]

3. FARC members being tried in US courts

There was nothing fair about Sonia's trial and a guilty verdict was nearly certain from the start. There was no physical evidence presented. Her trial mainly consisted of the testimony of four U.S. government paid informants who lied. There were no defense witnesses and Sonia was never called to defend herself or explain the political situation and U.S. intervention in Colombia. The jury had little chance of ever understanding the case due to ignorance about the 42 year Colombian civil war, the growing revolution led by the FARC and the deepening military intervention of the U.S.

Concerning the conviction Burke said, "Sonia's drug conviction is completely phony. How can U.S. spy satellites take photos of your dog in your back yard, but there are no pictures of the FARC with drugs? The FARC running drugs is like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - a big, big lie so an illegal war can continue. Bush's friend, Colombian President Uribe, is the one connected to the paramilitary drug runners and he is close to being taken down for it."

http://www.anncol.org/uk/site/doc.php?id=278

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thanks for the news. This has been kept so very, very quiet, hasn't it?

Also from your article:

"The Bush administration is conducting a dirty war in Colombia and Sonia's trial and imprisonment violate the sovereignty of Colombia. The U.S. government already runs the Colombian military and their paramilitary death squads. Now Bush is using the U.S. courts to try to criminalize freedom fighters, like the FARC, who are gaining popularity and strength in Colombia."
(snip)

The truth takes a lot longer to travel than the lies, wouldn't you say?

Will be looking for more on "Sonia" as time passes. Sure hope something can be done to correct her situation, and the larger, filthy situation which allowed it.

[High Plains]

4. Closer and closer to Uribe. What exquisite timing. n/t

[EST]

6. The US government has been a terrorist organization and a

supporter of global terror for pretty much its entire history, certainly since lt. Decatur responded to the pirates of the middle east with his own brand of terror, thus claiming the remarkable achievement of becoming the youngest captain in the US navy of all time.

Hypocrisy, thy name is legion, although hypocrisy has reached its zenith with the incompetent criminal junta under which we are all suffering.

I would never have imagined we could sink so low. I sadly fear armed revolution or civil war in this country is closer than we want to admit.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Did you see the Sy Hersh thing on Rumsfeld/Pentagon's worldwide spy/

black ops being too dirty for John Negroponte? Saints preserve us!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3133654
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/25/seymour-hersh-negroponte-iran-contra-fundsoh-my/

[Peace Patriot]

8. Since the Colombian fascist paramilitaries are the biggest threat I can see to

the Andean democracies (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia), and to the big leftist political movements in Peru and Paraguay--which of course in why the Bush Junta has been larding those paramilitaries with billions in cash from US taxpayers--their take-down is good news, indeed.

There are always some real heroes behind events like this. I was wondering about, "...when a computer seized from paramilitary leader 'Jorge 40'...."

My, my, who did THAT? Seized that computer. What brave prosecutor, lawyer, activist, or ethical insider got that computer into the right hands? And what are the political and legal forces behind this cleansing--so well-timed to expose Bush as the sponsor of terrorism, on the eve of his bribery, scheming and bullying tour of "South America." (His itin: Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Brazil--with Mexico, Brazil and possibly even Guatemala being a big risk of mass protests against Bush). He apparently can't go to Chile (President tortured by Pinochet; Mr. Guantanamo Bay not welcome?), Argentina (where daughters recently cavorted), Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador (where they also consider him "the devil"), Nicaragua (har-har-har!) or even Paraguay (big leftist movement). Brazil and Uruguay are having a little spat about the trade group Mercosur. Bush no doubt going there to try to stir up more trouble--"divide and conquer"--and delay moves toward South American Common Market and common currency (to get off the US dollar). He also wants to split Lulu from Chavez. (It was likely noticed in the Bush State Dept. that Lulu visited Venezuela two weeks before the presidential election in December--an election that Chavez won with 63% of the vote--for the ceremonial opening of the Orinoco Bridge between Venezuela and Brazil. Also, it was shortly after Chavez called Bush "the devil" at the UN. Very pointed visit.)

Robert Frost said "good fences make good neighbors" (and didn't mean it). But one could say more sincerely, "good bridges make good neighbors." That is what is happening all over South America. Good bridges. And lo and behold even in Colombia.

I think "Mr. Danger" is going to find himself in Antarctica with the penguins, looking for somebody to bribe and bully, so as to pay for his protection by the Corporate Reich back home. The plundering of the Middle East isn't working out so well, and he is one desperate man. Go to it, Lulu! Take this asterisk to the cleaners!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

9. They have Uribe, we have Negroponte.

:shrug:

[John Q. Citizen]

10. US out of Columbia now! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

11. Former Guerrilla Puts Uribe in Hot Seat

Former Guerrilla Puts Uribe in Hot Seat
Wednesday February 21, 2007 10:01 PM
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The political scandal that forced Colombia's foreign minister to quit this week and put other close allies of President Alvaro Uribe in jail is being driven in large part by a rebel-turned-lawmaker who has become the opposition's chief provocateur.

Sen. Gustavo Petro accuses the law-and-order president of letting a poisonous alliance prosper between the political class and right-wing militias that are responsible for brutal massacres and the theft of millions of acres of land from poor peasants.

Colombians who fear taking explosive information to police or prosecutors often turn instead to Petro, who has nine bodyguards, wears custom-tailored bulletproof jackets and has twice foiled paramilitary assassination plots. In an interview with The Associated Press, he casually mentioned that it would be nice to die of old age.

Now the 46-year-old Petro is turning up the heat on Uribe, calling for a debate in Congress next month on his claims that the president's brother, Santiago Uribe, helped form paramilitary groups in the 1990s and was personally involved in murders.

The president was governor of Antioquia state at the time, and Petro suggests he may have helped cover up for his brother: ``Nobody is asking, was the case shelved at Uribe's behest?''
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6430925,00.html

[donkeyotay]

12. War on terror and labor and human rights activists.

War on drugs that's never "won." War. Rightwing war on people. Sen. Wellstone went down there. He was way ahead of the curve on seeing this and the Iraq war.

K&R. We've got to multitask.

[donkeyotay]

13. Too late to recommend. Here's another kick.

This thread deserves more attention. This is important. Rightwingers. Drugs. Corruption. Death squads. We might not pay much attention here, but you can be sure South America is paying attention.

"an extraordinary scandal that threatens to undermine the credibility of US alliances and policy priorities from Mexico to Argentina.

George scores another foreign policy triumph! He's a uniter.

[Judi Lynn]

14. He's a real, natural wonder, absolutely. Look how much he has done for the world,

uniting everyone everywhere with many people in his own country.

Looking for images from Colombia over the last few years, I've been seeing a starkness that was not there before _Bush. Looks as if they've really gotten as sick of him as we are, and probably even more, as his policies are undoubtedly deadly in Colombia.









Political images:
http://www.nodo50.org/asipazcol/artistas_matiz-caricaturas.htm
http://www.nuevacolombia.de/rebelt-art/rebelt-art_3.htm

[Peace Patriot]

15. Great 'toons! Thanks! n/t

[donkeyotay]

16. That toon is perfect. A little unseemly, but our cause is so just.

Communism, drugs, terrorism. How low our country has sunk, mostly because all of this was allowed to grow under the cloak of national security and the "whatever it takes" mentality that we are so good that anything we do is just. Our black ops should have been confronted a long time ago, instead, I think they're running the government.

And lest the world forget, I will keep bringing up Sen. Wellstone's name. He stood in opposition to this, in loyal opposition to secrecy and for a government that could stand the light of day.

[Judi Lynn]

17. What are the chances that, on TWO seperate occassions, when he was visiting

Colombia, he was endangered, anway?

I'll bet you're thinking of the time they found, prior to his scheduled arrival at Barrancabermeja, a BOMB placed where he was supposed to get out of his car, and the other time, when he was observing a crop dusting with that deadly chemical, the airplane just "accidently" drenched him and at least one of his party with it.

He would have had to have been brain dead not to see a threat from them. From what I've seen on the internet, he went all over the country speaking on the subject of Colombia, as well. He was very involved, personally, in trying to get something done.

Getting rid of Wellstone made things a lot easier for the Republicans.

[CRH]

18. Ironic that tactics of a US puppet government, ...

could create a scandal that could blow up with more force than a thousand bombs, and change hearts and minds toward regional inter dependence and economic freedom.

In some ways the right wing US foreign policy agenda, through brutal excesses, creates its own worst enemy; an environment sympathetic to self governing nations weaving an interdependent cooperation within South and Latin American. The Bush administration, an emissary of freedom founding change. Ah the sweet Irony.

[donkeyotay]

19. Welcome, CRH

:hi: